February 27, 1987 in Grey City Journal published by University
of Chicago

.....Fighting apathy in America..........Democracy's underclass......

by Laura Torgerson

American Pictures, a multi-media presentation by Danish photographer
Jacob Holdt, is Brechtian epic theater par excellence. Holdt's insightful
and sensitive slide-show presentation which combines photography, music,
poetry, statistics, slogans and a compassionate narrative fulfills Brecht's
requirement for a socially significant, alienating theater. It is a form
of theater which turns spectators into observers and forces them to confront
the social relationships which underlie the every day actions and occurrences
that they normally take for granted.

Brecht envisions the street scene, for example, a sidewalk reenactment
of an accident, as the basic model for epic theater. The sidewalk demonstrator
is interested in portraying "social processes as seen in their causal relationships"
(1), s/he is not interested in providing his spectators with an enjoyable
theater, nor is s/he interested in creating pure emotion. The demonstration
is performed to present the spectators with information that they may form
their own opinions about the incident.

American Pictures, Holdt's documentation of his five plus years of vagabonding
in the United States, is a sensuous and complex version of Brecht's street
scene. It is an exploration of the causes and effects of poverty and racism
in the America. Utilizing, presumably naively, several techniques described
by Brecht in "Brecht on Theater" Holdt effectively produces an alienation
effect or A-effect. An A-effect means a condition in which the audience
is not part of, but removed from the action on the stage or screen. According
to Brecht, this crucial act of distancing forces the audience to adopt
a critical attitude towards that which they are observing.

Brecht claims that theater has the capacity to arouse an audience into
action only when it claims to be nothing other than theater. Stripped of
all magical and hypnotic effects, theater undergoes a positive change of
function when the actor instead of completely transforming into his/her
role remains part actor and thus helps to alienate the audience. Prevented
from becoming completely absorbed in the action, those in the audience
retain their critical abilities and dramatic theater becomes epic. This
means that the emphasis is on the narrative and human being rather than
on a plot in which the human element is taken for granted. Epic theater
is a theater that argues rather than suggests; it is concerned with each
scene and its curve-like progression to the next scene instead of fixing
on the end result brought about by linear development. Finally, it is a
theater based on reason rather than on feeling, like dramatic theater.

Brecht claims that an essential requirement for producing an A-effect
is that there be "a definite gest of showing" (2). Dressed casually with
long hair and a braided beard almost to his belt, Jacob Holdt dispels any
doubt that it is he who is putting on the show. He personally sets up and
runs the projector, and introduces the show. This direct relationship he
has with the audience also functions to produce an A-effect. It reiterates
that this is not life, it is demonstrative theater: do not embrace it with
your heart -- observe it, think about it, react to it!

Another technique recommended by Brecht to instill theater with dynamic
force is the "memorizing (of) one's first impressions." This is important
in order to "safe guard against an unduly impulsive, frictionless and uncritical
creation of characters and incidents". (3) Holdt's recorded narration,
based on letters he wrote home to his parents and friends in Denmark, retains
all the original shock, intensity and questioning that overwhelmed him
when he came face to face with the results of the cold and brutal power
of the American socio-economic system. In response to his letters, his
father sent him a camera to document the outrageous conditions he was seeing
and experiencing.

Describing other techniques that produce the A-effect Brecht stresses
"that the demonstrator should derive his characters entirely from their
actions" (4). Like Brecht, Holdt understands the extent to which society
determines the actions of individuals and thus their characters. The difference
between the following phrases "social being determines thought" and "thought
determines being"(5) is the difference between epic theater and dramatic
theater. The understanding of this difference and the emphasis on the causal
effects of external factors leads theater to serve a positive function:
it aids in the understanding of individuals and of social conditions.

Holdt demonstrates time and again how consequential society's imprint
is on man. It is particularly evident in the differing socially predetermined
reactions illicited by the police from Holdt and his friend Nell, an escaped
convict. They made the mistake one evening of walking together late at
night in a black neighborhood where police automatically mistook their
friendship as the interaction of two drug dealers. (What else could they
be?) Confident that there would be no problem and knowing that it was possible
the police just wanted to shake them up for a joint or two, Jacob remained
calm. But Nell, paranoid and distrustful, became irrational and was hauled
into the station when he was unable to produce any identification when
asked. The result was that Nell ended up back in prison.

A product of his/her society, a person cannot be judged without also
judging the socio-economic system that forms him or her. Jacob demonstrates
that Nell "had already been punished enough before committing any crime
by the poverty and humiliation society had subjected him to in his childhood."
(6) This is a primary objective of epic theater: to expose the hidden causes
and effects of a maelstrom of repetitious and at first, not particularly
striking social incidents.

Epic theater strives to make these daily incidents striking. It strives
to alienate the audience from these incidents in order to make it easier
for them to see, or to remember, that there are human beings at the center
of these oppressive repetitive processes. But, epic theater does not seek
empathy, it seeks action.

In addition to direct interaction with the audience, which Holdt does
both live and in his recorded narration, Brecht suggests that a "daring
and beautiful handling of verbal media will alienate the text" (7). The
naive beauty of Holdt's English is extraordinary, and the discrepancy between
his charming, childlike delivery and the bare brutality of the subject
of his words is provocative and remarkably disturbing. The audience is
constantly aware and inspired that Holdt, a foreigner, is genuinely interested
in the underlying currents of the American social system and concerned
for those who have to struggle so hard against them.

Brecht also contends that "special elegance, power and grace of gesture
bring about the A-effect" (8). Holdt's presentation combining smooth, well-paced
split screen projection, an intelligent, direct and compassionate narrative
and a powerful music track which does not simply accompany the text but
most often initiates it, puts the audience in a radical state of uncertainty:
a condition in which an individual is most vulnerable to the adoption of
a critical attitude or one of denial. The images of broken, poverty-stricken
human beings take hold of the emotions of the audience, but the educational
element quietly releases the tight grip insisting that emotions alone will
do nothing to change the outrageous and unexcusable problems of racism
which perpetuates the equally outrageous and unexcusable conditions in
which a great many Americans live. At this point, most of the audience
is sufficiently alienated to step back and make important political decisions.

In speaking of a production of his own, "The Threepenny Opera", Brecht
states that, "the educative elements were so to speak 'built in': they
were not an organic consequence of the whole, but stood in contradiction
to it; they broke up the flow of the play and its incidents, they prevented
empathy, they acted as a cold douche for those whose sympathies were becoming
involved" (9).

In American Pictures, entertainment and instruction do stand in open
conflict with each other. Writing for whites in the audience, he says in
a written introduction to the show, "This show is oppression, not entertainment!"
Holdt continues, "You will go through an incessant and seemingly endless
bombardment of statements of the type Blacks have always expressed to us
("White society is solely responsible for the ghettos."), but your defenses
will have no outlet. Thus you are being oppressed." It is this oppression,
in accordance with Brecht's theory, which ultimately alienates the audience
and makes them adopt a critical attitude of inquiry toward the information
presented to them. Holdt also writes, "This process (of oppression) combined
with the length (of the show) will create emotions in you not unlike the
ones Blacks have, working and living every day in white institutions...
experiencing how paralyzed and useless you feel after such a mini-form
of reverse oppression can make it easier for you to understand why it is
so difficult to succeed for those whom we are confining through our racism
to such emotions from earliest childhood."

Writing for Blacks in the audience he says that "the show is not automatically
constructive either. To demonstrate how devastating racism is, it concentrates
on that segment of the population most visibly defeated by it. Many Blacks
are effectively trying to put a shield around themselves to avoid being
infected by that racism, and the show will therefore create a lot of pain,
which at times might be overwhelming, just as it can lead to counter-productive
feelings of victimization. But for many Blacks the show has been a positive
experience in terms of better understanding the impact of internalized
racism and various forms of self-denial."

At the end of the show, Holdt holds a question and answer period to
discuss how we are all victims in a reciprocal system of racism and "how
it is threatening many of the best values in our society." An understanding
of this, he says, "could in the long run lead to some kind of action, which
is not based on guilt, but genuine solidarity and self-interest."

American Pictures is a product both of Jacob Holdt's years of vagabonding
and of a process of increased social and political awareness and activism.
Appreciation of his multi-media presentation depends on one's political
leanings; the images he presents are not ones most Americans care to know
about. His slide show may be seen, like Brecht's play "The Life of Galileo"
as a lament to "man's failure to understand the laws governing his life
in society" (10), as a call to come out of apathy and into active intervention
in life, and/or as a hopeful celebration of the gentle forces of reason.

Jacob Holdt will be appearing on campus Friday, March 6th in Kent Hall
room 107. Tickets are available at the door. $2 for students, $3 for non-students.